The U.S. Republican Agenda: Pathway Toward Inequality
"Soon
we'll know if the Democrats are capable of acting in time to prevent history
from repeating itself. If that doesn't happen and the conservative project
wins, the social differences that already exist in the American Union, without
the ignominy they have reached in Mexico, could deepen even further."
U.S. Republican Congressional
leaders last week unveiled their agenda for the November election campaign. In
general, it's a reiteration of their neoliberal credo: lower taxes, freezing government
spending, deficit and cuts in social spending. And added to the - they propose
to repeal health reform, which was approved earlier this year.
In a proposal that was
expected to be more creative in helping the country overcome its economic
problems, there's nothing new here. Indeed, as a whole, the agenda seems
designed to deepen the crisis, particularly in regard to unemployment.
Freezing government spending would
mean cutting off resources that Washington directs to the economy as a vehicle
for providing employment to millions of people. An across-the-board tax in
which taxpayers pay proportionally the same amount independently of income
would be inequitable and unfair. It would also increase the deficit about which
Republicans have being complaining - and without the benefit of borrowing for
the purpose of backing social or investment programs.
Finally, to repeal reform of
the health care system would mean, in plain terms, depriving 30 million people of
care who just became eligible for medical services as a result of reform.
Notwithstanding evidence of the
social and economic setback that the Republican proposal would mean for a
majority of the population, a recent survey by the PEW Research Center shows
that independent voters, who will decide the winners at the polls, continue to
favor Republican candidates.
Perhaps the best explanation for
this behavior was offered by former President Clinton, when he addresses what President
Obama and the Democrats have not done. He recalled that in 1994, he misjudged
the chances that Republicans would win the midterm elections. The error cost
him the majority in the House, which was ultimately an obstacle to his
governing agenda.
To prevent this from
happening again, he suggested a strategy that concentrates mainly on two
points: strongly refute the fallacy that the past 20 months of Democrat
government have been a fiasco and deny categorically and with facts the idea
that Obama is a socialist and that his intention is to destroy the entrepreneurial
spirit of U.S. people.
Soon we'll know if the
Democrats are capable of acting in time to prevent history from repeating
itself. If that doesn't happen and the conservative project wins, the social
differences that already exist in the American Union, without the ignominy they
have reached in Mexico, could deepen even further. Let us not forget the face
of the United States that the world discovered with surprise after Hurricane
Katrina.
